What is ICD?
International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems
The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (commonly known by the abbreviation ICD) is a detailed description of known diseases and injuries. It is published by the World Health Organization and is used worldwide for morbidity and mortality statistics.
It is revised periodically and is currently in its tenth edition, known as the ICD-10.
Every disease (or group of related diseases) is described with its diagnosis and given a unique code, up to five letters long.
The International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (commonly known by the abbreviation ICD) are designed to promote international comparability in the collection, processing, classification, and presentation of morbidity and mortality statistics. ICD-9 – Commonly disputed by healthcare providers as billing code and not representative of true clinical outcomes, the ICD-9 transforms verbal descriptions of diseases, injuries, and procedures into numbers. The current ICD-9-CM has been revised to incorporate changes in the medical field. To date, there have been 10 versions of the ICD, with the ICD-10 developed in 1992 to track mortality statistics. The years for which causes of death in the United States have been classified by each revision as follows:
ICD-1 – 1900
ICD-2 – 1910
ICD-3 – 1921
ICD-4 – 1930
ICD-5 – 1939
ICD-6 – 1949
ICD-7 – 1958
ICD-8A – 1968
ICD-9 – 1979
ICD-10 – 1992
